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A.M. #8: St. Louis

Posted Jan 31, 2013
by Aaron Portzline

Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards still seemed irritated today, nearly 36 hours after a 3-2 loss to Minnesota. The Jackets could rightly be called offensively inept, and now the stingiest club in the NHL -- the St. Louis Blues -- roll into town.

"I didn't have any contact with these guys (on Wednesday, an off day)," Richards said. "But today there was a message. We talked about it out on the ice (during the morning skate). Hopefully we'll show up tonight, we'll be ready to go."

The Blue Jackets will have three new faces in the lineup tonight: winger Jonathan Audy-Marchessault and defenseman Tim Erixon were recalled from minor-league Springfield on Wednesday, and defenseman David Savard was told to lace his skates. After seven healthy scratches, he's going in.

Suddenly, the Blue Jackets' are a hurtin' bunch, with four regular out of the lineup. Winger Cam Atkinson (high-ankle sprain) is probably two or three weeks away from a return; left winger Matt Calvert (upper body), defenseman Adrian Aucoin (lower body) and defenseman Nikita Nikitin (upper body) will likely miss a week, Richards said.

"We're shooting for Tuesday against Los Angeles," Richards said, referring to next week's game against the Kings in Nationwide Arena.

In the meantime, the Blue Jackets will try to dig out from a 2-4-1 start. They have the next six games in Nationwide, matching the longest homestand in franchise history. It starts with a formidable foe.

The Blues are 5-1-0 and have allowed an NHL-low 19.5 shots per game this season. They've held Detroit to 14 shots, Nashville to 13 and Minnesota to 16 already this season. If you've seen the shot counter in the last two Blue Jackets' games, you're gulping right now.

Richards said he was "interested and excited" to see what the new editions tonight might bring.

"It will be a great challenge for those guys," Richards said. "We're facing a really tough opponent. We'll all get tested tonight.

"We're going to have to do a lot more in the offensive zone. In our last game, we lost too many battles too easily. Our dumps were pretty good. We were getting there, but we weren't winning enough battles when we got there."

Here are the Blue Jackets lines, per the morning skate:

F1: R.J. Umberger - Artem Anisimov - Derek Dorsett

F2: Nick Foligno - Brandon Dubinsky - Derick Brassard

F3: Vinny Prospal - Ryan Johansen - Jonathan Audy-Marchessault

F4: Derek MacKenzie - Mark Letestu - Jared Boll

Looks like Colton Gillies is a healthy scratch.

To guess at the Blue Jackets' defensive pairs is to play the lottery. Richards allowed this morning that Jack Johnson and James Wisniewski will not open the game as a pair, at least not at even strength. That, along with Erixon and Savard joining the mix, makes it anyone's guess.

Something to keep in mind: John Moore and Erixon played together as a pair in Springfield.

Erixon, the final cut of training camp, played 18 games with the New York Rangers last season. So he knows what he's in for tonight.

Audy-Marchessault, on the other hand, is making his NHL debut. The Blue Jackets signed him to an entry-level contract this summer after he had a very good AHL rookie season in the New York Rangers' organization (AHL Connecticut).

JAM is an electrifying player at the AHL level. He goes hard and fast, shoots with reckless abandon and has a pretty good sense for playmaking. Even in the AHL, 16 goals and 29 assists in 41 games is impressive.

He said it took him "five or six games" last season to get used to the AHL, and wondered how long it would take him at the NHL level.

"The speed (isn't a problem)," Audy-Marchessault said. "I have speed, I can follow it. It's just adapt and make sure you make the right play, limit mistakes and be smart when you have the puck."

Audy-Marchessault said he thought first of his older brother Jamie when he got the call on Wednesday that he'd been recalled from the minor-leagues and would be making his NHL debut.

""He's always been there for me, always been a great role model off the ice for me," Audy-Marchessault said. There were lots of fun phone calls to make yesterday afternoon, he said.

"My family, they went crazy and booked some hotels and some flights," he said. "They're spending a lot of money coming down here, but they didn't want to miss it."

Average ticket price? "About $1,000."

Moore said Audy-Marchessault's energy is something the Blue Jackets can use right now.

"I'm pumped," Moore said. "Just looking at him skate, you can see he's full of energy. He's not just a fun guy to be around, but he's a pretty special player. It'll be exciting to see what he can do."

Side dishes:

-- Looks like G Sergei Bobrovsky will start tonight.

-- The Blues will be without D Wade Redden tonight. He has the flu. D Ian Cole will draw in for him.

-- Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, who guided the Blue Jackets' to their only playoff berth in 2008-09, said coming back to coach here is no longer awkward or special or awkwardly special. "Not after three years, three or four coaches, not really. I’m really excited for John and Diana (Davidson joining the Blue Jackets). They’re really good friends of ours. Players come and go. I looked at the (Blue Jackets') roster today. Cripes, I know like five players. That’s just changed a lot. It's another road game for me, to be honest."

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